The Journalist Of The Year, By The Los Angeles Press Club

“ Drug war's emphasis on law enforcement takes a toll on police.”  Wall Street Journal (1923 - Current File), January 11, 1991. Accessed March 25, 2017. Historical Newspapers.

There are many factors that contribute to today’s American policing. Once such factor that contribute tremendously to today’s policing came in 1829 when Sir Robert Peel’s concept of policing came into effect. This would change the way policing would be performed in not only England, but the United States (U.S) and around the world. Another huge factor that impacts policing is the relationship the U.S. Government has with policing. These factors affect every policing organization in the U.S.

If you grew up in an average middle-class town in the United States you were probably raised on the premise that the police were there to protect and fight crime, however, in many of today’s urban centers throughout the country, the tension between the police and the citizens has a very different relationship. The term ‘police’ brings many images to mind, while the objective of the police is to prevent and detect crime, this is far from the way so many Americans feel. Far from the original purpose of the police, the use of brutal and sometimes lethal force has evoked questions regarding the skewed system and the relationship between both in the communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the issue in the article, The Paranoid Style of American Policing, often bringing up complex issues, and effectively brings the issues to life through anecdotes. Coates presents a logical, thought out and well-executed argument surrounding the cracked police system in America. Due to the well-supported thesis, the structure of the argument, and lack of fallacies, Coates position is adequately supported through the use

Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko, centers around police in the United States and how it has gone through militarization throughout the years. Militarization is a process in which the police departments take on tactics that are similar to the tactics used by the military. Police forces were initially made to make our environment a safer place to live in. In this book, Balko explains how that has changed. Practices of policing first began when people would get hired, unofficially, to keep slaves under control and catch them if they try to run away. These people were sometimes known as slave catchers. Soon it evolved into formal policing, allowing police to catch criminals and make the neighborhood safe. However, today it is not so much about catching criminals; it involves a lot of violence and Balko questions whether this is even constitutional. In his writing, Balko brings awareness to the horrible tactics police are using in today’s society and how we could fix it.

Gaines, L., & Kappeler, V. (2011). Policing in America (7th ed., p. 194). Waltham: Anderson Publishing.

During this decade of much turmoil, the policing were seen as brutal and racist. To improve this image of the police at this time, the department as a whole started changing its practices (“Policing the Social Crises of the 1960s”, n.d.).

Since the dawn of human kind, there has been some form of policing; whether that policing is based on taking revenge or the maintenance of public order and upholding the laws of the land. Although 200 years have passed, policing policies fundamentally has not changed. In this essay, I will be writing on early policing before the 19th century, policing in the 19th century, how policing evolved in America, policing now, and then compare the similarities and differences between today’s policing policies and those of the 19th century.

One of the most significant policy developments that created a space for institutionalized racism following the slavery era was the War on Drugs, announced by President Ronald Reagan. This declaration was surprising because at the time, most Americans were hardly, if not at all, concerned about drug problems in their communities. Instead, President Reagan had created a tool in which race in the US could be controlled, specifically through a transition from traditional policing to military style policing. But this was not the only change in policing during this time. The Reagan administration, and following it, the Clinton administration, continued their racist-driven agendas by doing such things as making cash grants to those police authorities that made it a top priority to pursue drug offenders. Essentially bribing police officers into searching out anyone with drugs, it became legal for police officers to stop and search vehicles with minor traffic violations, as well as to confiscate any belongings of the individual charged with committing a drug crime, claiming that the object could have been a part of the felony act.

Throughout the 1970s there’s been a large influx of drugs, and violence as a result of drugs. During this same time period African Americans were experiencing new levels of equality they hadn’t felt since the Reconstruction Period began, which dashed their hopes after the Civil War ended. They were still experiencing discrimination in employment. The combination of unemployment and drugs was a contributor to the crime rate. Drugs and alcohol overwhelmingly effected the Black Community Unfortunately, at the time, former President Richard Nixon declared War on Drugs, the governmental approach for addressing the harmful effects of drugs on society was to create an atmosphere that unjustly targeted poor blacks and other ethnic minorities in the

Furthermore, there are many problems associated with militarizing our police that we need to recognize and address. Police militarization started with the intent of combating terrorism but has grown to unnecessary uses and applications. Instead, we see too much force and tension applied to minor operations and a lot of misuse of power while handling citizens, primarily people of color. It does not help that policemen’s

“The War on Drugs” was declared by Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971. Nixon described substance abuse as “public enemy number one of the United States.” The Nixon administration went further on to create the Special Action for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP) and the Office of Drug Abuse Law (ODALE), in addition to other programs the Reagan administration put in place. These programs created a “super agency” known today as the Drug Enforcement Administration. These particular programs enabled the government to target those of a lower class and those who were colored. This brings several questions to the forefront, like was the DEA established to keep those of lower status, those of color incarcerated as a new form of Jim Crow? Little attention has

The ‘War on cops’ some say that there is a war waging on America's police officers , and others believe otherwise. Thomas Sowell's article “The War On Cops” is on his perspective that there is a war on cops “occurring across the country” and that there are those who generate an acrid atmosphere of “blind hatred”. Clayton Jenkins article “ My Police Academy Teaches the ‘War on Cops’ Myth” , is on Jenkins considers the ‘War on Cops’ to be an inaccurate response to recent police killings , that there is not enough evidence to even support the idea. Upon my assessment of both essays I believe that there isn't a ‘War on cops’- but there is a distrust between people of color and the police, because of the aftermath of the ‘war on drugs’.

The police work to keep everyone safe and keep order in society by enforcing laws, by investigating and preventing crimes. Recently it has become clear that things do not always work on that way. Sometimes police officers brutalize civilians and damage their possessions. The United States of America is one country where this phenomenon of police brutality is intensifying with no signs of slowing down. According to the statistics of The Washington Post, American police merely shot a thousand of people last year, and of those, just five hundred and sixty four were armed with guns. Kimberly Kindy, an investigative reporter at the newspaper Washington Post warned the public opinion about the trend of this phenomenon when she said, "In fact there has been an increase, a six per cent increase in fatal shootings when we compare the first six months of last year to the first six months of this year. There are about three people who are dying a day fatally shot by officers”. Her investigation provides evidence that the violence is increasing daily. It becomes clear that the violence of police forces becomes a serious national problem. However, this police brutality is the tree that conceals the huge crisis of the American Police.

The War on Drugs is a term that is commonly applied to the campaign of prohibition of drugs. The goal of this campaign is to reduce the illegal drug trade across America. This term “ War on Drugs” was used during Nixon’s campaign in which he declared War on Drugs during a press conference in 1971. Following this declaration many organizations were created to stop the spread of drugs, like the DEA and Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement. Note that Nixon’s approach to this problem was to fund treatment rather than law enforcement. After Nixon’s retirement from office, most of the funding went from going into treatment to the law enforcement. Which militarized the police force giving the officer’s military weapons and gear. With this, the sentencing for possessing drugs was changed as well, resulting incarcerations rates to increase overtime. The increase of incarceration rates started to create many patterns that were soon noticeable. The funding’s that go into the law enforcement has shown to greatly have an affect on the incarceration rates.

Police brutality is an old problem that has been around in this country for many years. Unfortunately, civilians have experienced it in their thousands, suffering varying degrees of damages, ranging from injuries or even loss of their lives at the hands of the brutal police. Even more disheartening is the fact that numerous officers in the American police force believe that their brutal and hostile tactics are contributing and giving justice to society, which is their basic role in the world (Vila and Morris 29). However, the